OKC Thunder film room: defensive keys to shut down Trail Blazers offense
Stay the course
What OKC did against Portland during the regular season clearly worked. Head coach Billy Donovan needs to ensure the Thunder stay the course with their strategy and lineup rotations to continue their winning trend against what, hopefully, continues to be a lesser opponent. Oklahoma City needs to secure at least one win in Portland before coming home to Chesapeake Energy Arena.
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This will require the Thunder owning the paint, reducing Portland’s 3-point success, cutting down on personal fouls committed, containing the Trail Blazers’ top play-maker, and generating high-volume offensive success of their own.
Sounds like a recipe for success against most teams, right? I wouldn’t argue against you if you thought so.
The point is OKC did a pretty good job of implementing all of these strategies during the regular season, so they just need to continue with more of the same. However, the regular season is over, and a new season has begun. Be it a four game or seven-game season, the Oklahoma City Thunder have the ability to decide for themselves how they want the series to go.
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With everything to play for and nothing to hold them back, expect the Thunder to come out with high-voltage energy and aggressive play to set the tone in their favor for the entire series.